This Photographer Takes the New York Subway to Its Most Remote Ends to Capture the City’s Far-Flung Characters—See Images Here
When Taylor Chapman moved to New York City in
2011, he decided that the best way to get to know his new home was
to ride the rails—all of them. Chapman took each and every subway
line to its final stop, and then explored the surrounding
neighborhoods and captured them in photographs.
“It felt like a natural way to get to see a side of the city
that I wouldn’t see in my everyday life,” Chapman told Artnet News.
“It was born out of a love of the city, and a love for the
subway.”
The photo project, titled “End of the Line,” has of course taken
Chapman to Times Square and Grand Central Station, where the
shuttle train begins and ends, but also to farther-flung parts of
outer boroughs.
It’s an endeavor that has kept Chapman busy for the better part
of the decade, but with New York under lockdown, it’s been nearly
two months since he last swiped his Metrocard. And last week, the
MTA took the unprecedented step of shutting down the system
overnight to allow workers to disinfect the trains.
The Narrows and the Verrazzano. Bay
Ridge 95th St, end of the R train; 2012. From the series “End of
the Line.” Photo courtesy of Taylor Chapman.
“New York without its subway is not New York,” said Chapman, who
works in venture capital by day, investing in education startups.
The weekends are often dedicated to “End of the Line,” to traveling
to distant neighborhoods and seeing where the camera takes him.
Now, those journeys are limited to where Chapman can reach by
bike, and the city has been radically transformed. “I’ve spent so
much time looking at and documenting these places I’m interesting
in looking at what they look like in a depopulated world,” he
said.
Having visited all 40 subway terminuses—some more than
once—Chapman is currently in the process of turning the 30,000
images he’s taken over the years into a book that will help tell
the stories of some of the people he’s encountered along the
way.
Slavik Haimov, Uzbeki pigeon fancier and
tow-truck driver, keeps 300+ pigeons in the corner of his Brooklyn
scrapyard. Slavik learned pigeoncraft from his father at age nine
in Uzbekistan. He personally selects a mate for each of his
breeding pigeons, and holds auctions on Sundays for Brooklyn’s
dwindling population of competitive pigeonmasters. Coney Island,
end of the F train; 2016. Photo courtesy of Taylor Chapman.
There was the Coney Island scrapyard owner from Uzbekistan, who
holds auctions to sell the exotic birds he raises. “I photographed
him in his shed and got shat on,” said Chapman.
He was also struck by his time in the last Irish pub in Norwood,
at the end of the D line in the Bronx, once a predominantly Irish
neighborhood, now having transitioned to being predominantly West
Indian. The owner came over from Ireland in the 1960s, and the
establishment, which has since shuttered, seemed frozen in
time.
“It feels good to have witnessed a bit of vanishing New York,”
said Chapman.
A patron fills in his Racing Form
outside McDwyer’s, the last Irish pub in a Bronx neighborhood that
used to host dozens. Norwood was once so heavily Irish that the
sitting President of Ireland stopped through on one of her NYC
visits; today, most of the Irish have moved to the suburbs or back
to the “old Sod.” Since the photo was taken, McDwyer’s too has
closed. Norwood 205 St, end of the D train; 2015. Photo courtesy of
Taylor Chapman.
I first learned of Chapman’s work when I spotted him walking
down my block in Sugar Hill, in Harlem’s Hamilton Heights
neighborhood, sporting a hefty looking camera as he explored the
area around the terminus of the 3 train at 148th Street. Some
locals may be wary of a man wandering their streets with a camera,
but Chapman finds that people loosen up when he asks them for
advice on what makes their neighborhood special, and what is worthy
of being photographed.
Now, at a time when the city has crawled to a standstill,
Chapman’s work serves as a reminder of the vibrancy of life
throughout New York, even in the outskirts.
Bedford Park Blvd, end of the B train;
2016. Photo courtesy of Taylor Chapman.
“This project is about appreciating how glorious and diversely
strange and multifaceted and unfathomable New York City is,” he
said. “It’s full of so much joy and tragedy and culture and cuisine
and color.”
See more photos from the series below.
Tottenville, end of the Staten Island
Railway; 2014. From the series “End of the Line.” Photo courtesy of
Taylor Chapman.
Emily, a journalist, in Prospect
Lefferts Gardens, a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. Prospect
Park, end of the Brooklyn S train; 2016. From the series “End of
the Line.” Photo courtesy of Taylor Chapman.
Outside Kelly’s Tavern. Local lore holds
that Kelly’s has exits onto two streets as a holdover from its days
as a Prohibition-era speakeasy. Bay Ridge 95th St, end of the R
train; 2017. From the series “End of the Line.” Photo courtesy of
Taylor Chapman.
Outside a wedding at a West African
storefront church. Nereid Avenue, end of the 5 train; 2016. From
the series “End of the Line.” Photo courtesy of Taylor Chapman.
Caribbean bodega. Prospect Park, end of
the Brooklyn S train; 2016. From the series “End of the Line.”
Photo courtesy of Taylor Chapman.
Father and son. Harlem 148th St, end of
the 3 train; 2016. From the series “End of the Line.” Photo
courtesy of Taylor Chapman.
Fire hydrant block party. Wakefield
241st St, end of the 2 train; 2016. From the series “End of the
Line.” Photo courtesy of Taylor Chapman.
Mother and child, down the block from
the local mosque. Franklin Ave, end of the S train; 2015. From the
series “End of the Line.” Photo courtesy of Taylor Chapman.
Harlem 148th St, end of the 3 train;
2016. From the series “End of the Line.” Photo courtesy of Taylor
Chapman.
Prospect Park, end of the Brooklyn S
train; 2016. From the series “End of the Line.” Photo courtesy of
Taylor Chapman.
Wakefield 241st St, end of the 2 train;
2016. From the series “End of the Line.” Photo courtesy of Taylor
Chapman.
Prospect Park, end of the Brooklyn S
train; 2016. From the series “End of the Line.” Photo courtesy of
Taylor Chapman.
Harlem 148th St, end of the 3 train;
2016. From the series “End of the Line.” Photo courtesy of Taylor
Chapman.
Live poultry slaughterhouse. Wakefield
241st St, end of the 2 train; 2016. From the series “End of the
Line.” Photo courtesy of Taylor Chapman.
Coney Island, end of the D, F, N, and Q
trains; 2012. From the series “End of the Line.” Photo courtesy of
Taylor Chapman.
Wakefield 241st St, end of the 2 train;
2016. From the series “End of the Line.” Photo courtesy of Taylor
Chapman.
Woodlawn, end of the 4 train; 2015. From
the series “End of the Line.” Photo courtesy of Taylor Chapman.
Canarsie, end of the L train; 2016. From
the series “End of the Line.” Photo courtesy of Taylor Chapman.
Fire hydrant block party. Harlem 148th
St, end of the 3 train; 2016. From the series “End of the Line.”
Photo courtesy of Taylor Chapman.
Prospect Park, end of the Brooklyn S
train; 2016. From the series “End of the Line.” Photo courtesy of
Taylor Chapman.
Minivan full of durian. Norwood 205 St,
end of the D train; 2015. From the series “End of the Line.” Photo
courtesy of Taylor Chapman.
Bay Ridge 95th St, end of the R train;
2017. From the series “End of the Line.” Photo courtesy of Taylor
Chapman.
Tottenville, end of the Staten Island
Railway; 2014. From the series “End of the Line.” Photo courtesy of
Taylor Chapman.
Harshil, a member of the Shree
Muktajeeven Swamibapa pipe band. Its namesake, a religious leader
of the Swaminarayan branch of Hinduism, saw a Scottish pipe band
perform in Trafalgar Square and asked his followers to establish a
similar band in 1972. Its original nine members were trained by an
intense Scottish bandmaster named Major Caution. The band has five
divisions around the world, including in the UK and Nairobi. Grand
Central, end of the S train. Grand Central, end of the Manhattan S
train; 2017. From the series “End of the Line.” Photo courtesy of
Taylor Chapman.
The post This Photographer Takes the New York Subway to Its
Most Remote Ends to Capture the City’s Far-Flung Characters—See
Images Here appeared first on artnet News.
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